Sharapova on schedule to return in Brisbane

As of now, Maria Sharapova appears to be on schedule for her planned return to tournament tennis at the Brisbane International (December 29 - January 5), TENNIS.com has learned.

Sharapova has been nursing a shoulder injury since the beginning of the summer and has only played one match since Wimbledon, a loss to Sloane Stephens in Cincinnati in early August. Last week, the four-time Grand Slam champion played an exhibition against Ana Ivanovic in Bogota.

Sharapova recently appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and joked that she had no idea whether her grunting helps her tennis or not.

“I’m not sure what it does,” Sharapova said with a laugh. “I still to this day don’t really know. Because once you start playing, you just start going into this automatic rhythm.”